The measurement of quality-adjusted life years: investigations into trade-offs between longevity and quality of life

In health care, decision makers are faced with increasing innovation and demand for services accompanied by escalating costs. As a result, governments and institutions have sought to promote health care value (i.e. better outcomes per moneys spent). A summary measure of health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) to help decide how to allocate available resources is thus highly desirable. In no other area of public policy has a measure similar to the widely-used quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) been developed. The QALY is therefore unique in both its ambitions and in the political, philosophical and measurement challenges it faces. This thesis set out to examine health state valuation using the time-trade off (TTO), a tool used to measure HRQoL, in the context of a behavioural economic framework. Observed violations of procedural and descriptive invariance, cornerstones of decision theory (on which the TTO is based), have been witnessed in health state valuation and elsewhere. Behavioural economics offers a framework by which such inconsistencies can potentially be better understood. Although behavioural economics has gained traction in other areas of decision research, its application to health state valuation has been limited. Drawing on the decision-making literature and health-specific considerations, the empirical studies in this thesis: provide insight into why previous studies of the TTO have yielded inconsistent findings, showcase violations of internal consistency due to behavioural economic phenomena, and identify issues relevant to the choice of TTO ‘version’ (i.e. how values should be elicited). Implications of the research in terms of stated preference methods and their role in policy are discussed. A strict focus on the TTO was intended, as it is the tool most widely implemented in health state preference elicitation, both in research contexts and clinical studies that seek to demonstrate cost-effectiveness. However, importantly, the empirical findings and discussion in this thesis are relevant not only to researchers of health state valuation but to policy makers in health and other areas of social policy which seek input for their decisions through stated preference exercises

Multi-Band Acoustic Monitoring of Aerial Signatures

The Galileo Project's acoustic monitoring, omni-directional system (AMOS) aids in the detection and characterization of aerial phenomena. It uses a multi-band microphone suite spanning infrasonic to ultrasonic frequencies, providing an independent signal modality for validation and characterization of detected objects. The system utilizes infrasonic, audible, and ultrasonic systems to cover a wide range of sounds produced by both natural and man-made aerial phenomena. Sound signals from aerial objects can be captured given certain conditions, such as when the sound level is above ambient noise and isn't excessively distorted by its transmission path. Findings suggest that audible sources can be detected up to 1 km away, infrasonic sources can be detected over much longer distances, and ultrasonic at shorter ones. Initial data collected from aircraft recordings with spectral analysis will help develop algorithms and software for quick identification of known aircraft. Future work will involve multi-sensor arrays for sound localization, larger data sets analysis, and incorporation of machine learning and AI for detection and identification of more types of phenomena in all frequency bands

HCI goes to the zoo

This workshop will explore research into interactive and digital technologies in zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks. Such sites are making increasing use of technology in their work to foster educational, emotional and entertaining connections between visitors and animals, with the goal of transforming attitudes to wildlife and conservation. Bringing together HCI researchers with interests in zoos (as a design context) and animals (as a design user), as well as animal welfare and behavior experts, this workshop will further our understanding of what it means to design and use technology in this space at the intersection of the human and animal worlds

A Hardware and Software Platform for Aerial Object Localization

To date, there are little reliable data on the position, velocity and acceleration characteristics of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). The dual hardware and software system described in this document provides a means to address this gap. We describe a weatherized multi-camera system which can capture images in the visible, infrared and near infrared wavelengths. We then describe the software we will use to calibrate the cameras and to robustly localize objects-of-interest in three dimensions. We show how object localizations captured over time will be used to compute the velocity and acceleration of airborne objects

Parks & Open Space: A Demand & Supply Analysis of Existing Public and Private Open Space in Montgomery County, Maryland

Final project for URSP688L: Planning Technologies (Fall 2017). University of Maryland, College Park.Montgomery County Planning’s Energized Public Spaces Functional Master Plan (EPS FMP), which focused primarily on the Silver Spring Central Business District, inventoried the supply of existing parks and open spaces, estimated the demand for parks and open space based on the presence of population and jobs, and identified areas where service gaps exist. The Fall 2017 URSP688L PALS program took the same approach as the EPS FMP, but expanded the study to the whole County, establishing a Set 1 Data and Map. We then created an alternative framework analysis using additional variables to further expand the study’s scope to establish a Set 2 Data and Map. In this alternative framework analysis (Set 2), the park supply for Montgomery County was determined by assigning a score based on amenities in each park. A walkshed was created for each park and the acre grid of Montgomery County in which it is located using a walkshed network analysis that calculated a one mile walk distance from each grid. Park demand was determined by including the following variables: population density, housing density, age, zero car households, and access to private gardens/yards, based on whether a property was multi-family or not. By analyzing the data on public and semi-public parks and factors known to influence their demand, we developed a composite scoring system to identify current service gaps in park lands within Montgomery County, and compared the Set 1 and Set 2 Data. The Set 2 data indicated more significant service gaps in park supply and demand throughout the County, but both Set 1 and Set 2 data indicated a need for more parks in the County’s more rural north and west areas. We recommend undertaking further research using additional variables and advanced analysis tools as this project proceeds into Spring 2018. Part II: http://hdl.handle.net/1903/21108Montgomery Count

Egg development, hatching rhythm and moult patterns in Paralomos spinosissima (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguroidea: Lithodidae) from South Georgia waters (Southern Ocean)

Larval release, hatching rhythms and moult patterns were examined in a captive population of the subantarctic lithodid, Paralomis spinosissima from the South Georgia and Shag Rocks region. Larvae hatched throughout the year with the majority of females starting to release larvae at the end of the austral summer and beginning of autumn. Larval release continued over a period of up to 9 weeks with high variability in the numbers that hatched each day. A similar seasonal pattern to hatching was evident in the moulting of females. Intermoult period for two adult females (CL = 63 and 85 mm) ranged from 894 to 1,120 days while an intermoult period for males was estimated to be in excess of 832 days. The results are consistent with other species of Paralomis and are discussed in relation to physiological and environmental adaptations to the cold-water conditions south of the Antarctic Convergence

An Anti-American Ban On Critique: A Critical Policy Commentary

We are a group of educational leaders who are doctoral candidates and faculty members in the Educational Leadership for Social Justice EdD program at California State University, East Bay. Our work centers around 1) creating shared knowledge about inequities and how they are reproduced by institutional systems, such as education, and 2) finding ways to address these systemic issues to create a more equal, healthy society. This work is informed by multiple critical perspectives, such as critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; hooks, 1994), critical race theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), and Black feminisms (Collins, 2002; Crenshaw, 1989). These perspectives, while varying somewhat, offer a common thread guided by the understanding that the world operates via power relations that privilege some groups while subordinating others; but these relationships, and the oppressions that result, are masked by the dominant culture’s insistence on painting reality with a brush of neutrality and a failure to engage with our history in a way that helps us understand and act on its repercussions on humanity

The development of an analytical framework to compare reception structures for unaccompanied refugee minors in Europe

The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child stipulates that unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) are entitled to specific and adapted accommodation structures and care. Despite the general strive in EU policy to reach common standards for those reception structures, they still vary largely, resulting in unequal treatment and care conditions. In this article, we aim to build an analytical framework, based on central features of concrete reception practices in different EU countries, which can serve as a tool for in-depth comparative researches of reception and care systems. Starting from the comparative framework of Watters and Hossain [(2008). Policy in practice: Reception practices and minimum standards (End report for ARG project)], we draw a new framework on reception structures for URM based on insights from various disciplines and extensive participant observations in 58 accommodation settings for this group in different EU Member States. Our framework includes four analytical axes: (1) separation versus integration; (2) control versus autonomy; (3) immigration control versus welfare protection; and (4) low intensity versus high intensity care and illustrates how organisational arrangements and choices made within the different axes strongly influence the realisation of care and support. As such, this framework may serve as a first, necessary step in creating increased evidence on how reception structures may impact URM’ well-being